American History – serie

A sweeping history of America during the tumultuous decades between the ends of World War I and World War II, when a mainly rural, isolationist republic was transformed into a nuclear superpower and the leader of the free world.Through the prosperous 1920s and its culture wars to the Great Crash and Depression of the Thirties, the fits and starts of the New Deal, and then the all-consuming fight to defeat fascism in World War II, the twenty-five years from 1920 through 1945 witnessed the creation of what would be known as the American century. Two towering political figures, Herbert Hoover and Franklin D Roosevelt, dominated the politics of these years in which America underwent a breathtaking metamorphosis, with all its power and trade-offs: its predominance on the global stage, its increasingly imperial government, its unprecedented affluence, and its far-flung cultural influence.Prosperity Road captures in telling detail how war and the experiences of economic boom and bust shaped America’s political expectations and its institutions. Written by acclaimed Cambridge historian Anthony J Badger, Prosperity Road is cultural, economic, and political history at its finest and most captivating.Other books in the American History series include:Ecstatic Nation by Brenda WineappleRebirth of a Nation by Jackson LearsWalking Giant by David S. ReynoldsThe Age of Reagan by Sean Wilentz

Our nation has produced comparatively few statesmen since the eighteenth century - only Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt seem to clearly qualify - whereas the American Revolution elevated several of its key players to a status of the first political order. Even the shortest list must include Franklin, Hamilton, and the first four presidents. The opening essays in Don Higginbotham's new collection look at the epochal achievements of the Revolutionary era through the perspectives of war, leadership, and state formation. Higginbotham examines how the blend of key personages influenced the creation of a federal system and led to the establishment of a new kind of militia and of West Point, a military academy distinctly different from its counterparts in Europe. The collection also provides a fascinating view into the character of George Washington through an essay examining his relationships with women. The concluding essays turn to the post-Revolutionary era to examine how the North and South, despite profound and persistent bonds, began to grow apart. Higginbotham traces the deepening sectional crisis within the context of the election of Lincoln, and he ends his book with the approach of a second revolution - that of the Confederacy. All of the essays demonstrate Higginbotham's belief that history is not shaped simply by vast, impersonal forces but that, on the contrary, significant and lasting change is to a large extent brought about by the interaction and decisions of individuals. Our unique and remarkable history is a reflection of remarkable people.